Broadly conserved FlgV controls flagellar assembly and Borrelia burgdorferi dissemination in mice.

ABSTRACT: Flagella propel pathogens through their environments, yet are expensive to synthesize and are immunogenic. Thus, complex hierarchical regulatory networks control flagellar gene expression. Spirochetes are highly motile bacteria, but peculiarly, the archetypal flagellar regulator σ²⁸ is absent in the Lyme spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Here, we show that gene bb0268 (flgV) in B. burgdorferi, previously and incorrectly annotated to encode the RNA-binding protein Hfq, is instead a structural flagellar component that modulates flagellar assembly. The flgV gene is broadly conserved in the flagellar superoperon alongside σ²⁸ in many Spirochaetae, Firmicutes and other phyla, with distant homologs in Epsilonproteobacteria. We find that B. burgdorferi FlgV is localized withi

SUBMITTER: Zamba-Campero M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11607428 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature